Many years ago when I moved to New York from Brazil the thing I missed the most was human touch. In Brazil, when you meet someone you give them one kiss on each cheek. You hug and hold hands of family members and friends. And when Brazilians talk to each other there is a lot of hand on hand and hand on shoulder action. So as a newly arrived Brazilian in the US, I had to resort to going to get manicures just to have my hands held.

As I think about it when we were babies; touching and holding is how we communicated and experienced the world. As we started to walk – an adult holding our hand – gave us the courage and the safety to take those first steps.

When we were kids we touched, pushed and hugged our friends. When we started dating holding hands became a whole new experience.